a biography about mother teresa

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to helping the poor. Considered one of the 20th Century's greatest humanitarians, she was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

(1910-1997)

Who Was Mother Teresa?

Nun and missionary Mother Teresa, known in the Catholic church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, devoted her life to caring for the sick and poor. Born in Macedonia to parents of Albanian-descent and having taught in India for 17 years, Mother Teresa experienced her "call within a call" in 1946. Her order established a hospice; centers for the blind, aged and disabled; and a leper colony.

Mother Teresa’s Family and Young Life

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, the current capital of the Republic of Macedonia. The following day, she was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.

Mother Teresa’s parents, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, were of Albanian descent; her father was an entrepreneur who worked as a construction contractor and a trader of medicines and other goods. The Bojaxhius were a devoutly Catholic family, and Nikola was deeply involved in the local church as well as in city politics as a vocal proponent of Albanian independence.

In 1919, when Mother Teresa — then Agnes — was only eight years old, her father suddenly fell ill and died. While the cause of his death remains unknown, many have speculated that political enemies poisoned him.

In the aftermath of her father's death, Agnes became extraordinarily close to her mother, a pious and compassionate woman who instilled in her daughter a deep commitment to charity. Although by no means wealthy, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city's destitute to dine with her family. "My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others," she counseled her daughter. When Agnes asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly responded, "Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people."

Education and Nunhood

Agnes attended a convent-run primary school and then a state-run secondary school. As a girl, she sang in the local Sacred Heart choir and was often asked to sing solos. The congregation made an annual pilgrimage to the Church of the Black Madonna in Letnice, and it was on one such trip at the age of 12 that she first felt a calling to religious life. Six years later, in 1928, an 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and set off for Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin. It was there that she took the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

A year later, Sister Mary Teresa traveled on to Darjeeling, India, for the novitiate period; in May 1931, she made her First Profession of Vows. Afterward, she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at Saint Mary's High School for Girls, a school run by the Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching girls from the city's poorest Bengali families. Sister Teresa learned to speak both Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and dedicated herself to alleviating the girls' poverty through education.

On May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "Mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's principal. Through her kindness, generosity and unfailing commitment to her students' education, she sought to lead them to a life of devotion to Christ. "Give me the strength to be ever the light of their lives, so that I may lead them at last to you," she wrote in prayer.

'Call Within a Call'

On September 10, 1946, Mother Teresa experienced a second calling, the "call within a call" that would forever transform her life. She was riding in a train from Calcutta to the Himalayan foothills for a retreat when she said Christ spoke to her and told her to abandon teaching to work in the slums of Calcutta aiding the city's poorest and sickest people.

Since Mother Teresa had taken a vow of obedience, she could not leave her convent without official permission. After nearly a year and a half of lobbying, in January 1948 she finally received approval to pursue this new calling. That August, donning the blue-and-white sari that she would wear in public for the rest of her life, she left the Loreto convent and wandered out into the city. After six months of basic medical training, she voyaged for the first time into Calcutta's slums with no more specific a goal than to aid "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for."

Missionaries of Charity

Mother Teresa quickly translated her calling into concrete actions to help the city's poor. She began an open-air school and established a home for the dying destitute in a dilapidated building she convinced the city government to donate to her cause. In October 1950, she won canonical recognition for a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded with only a handful of members—most of them former teachers or pupils from St. Mary's School.

As the ranks of her congregation swelled and donations poured in from around India and across the globe, the scope of Mother Teresa's charitable activities expanded exponentially. Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a string of mobile health clinics.

In 1971, Mother Teresa traveled to New York City to open her first American-based house of charity, and in the summer of 1982, she secretly went to Beirut, Lebanon, where she crossed between Christian East Beirut and Muslim West Beirut to aid children of both faiths. In 1985, Mother Teresa returned to New York and spoke at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly. While there, she also opened Gift of Love, a home to care for those infected with HIV/AIDS.

Mother Teresa’s Awards and Recognition

In February 1965, Pope Paul VI bestowed the Decree of Praise upon the Missionaries of Charity, which prompted Mother Teresa to begin expanding internationally. By the time of her death in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity numbered more than 4,000 — in addition to thousands more lay volunteers — with 610 foundations in 123 countries around the world.

The Decree of Praise was just the beginning, as Mother Teresa received various honors for her tireless and effective charity. She was awarded the Jewel of India, the highest honor bestowed on Indian civilians, as well as the now-defunct Soviet Union's Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work "in bringing help to suffering humanity."

Criticism of Mother Teresa

Despite this widespread praise, Mother Teresa's life and work have not gone without its controversies. In particular, she has drawn criticism for her vocal endorsement of some of the Catholic Church's more controversial doctrines, such as opposition to contraception and abortion. "I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion," Mother Teresa said in her 1979 Nobel lecture.

In 1995, she publicly advocated a "no" vote in the Irish referendum to end the country's constitutional ban on divorce and remarriage. The most scathing criticism of Mother Teresa can be found in Christopher Hitchens' book The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice , in which Hitchens argued that Mother Teresa glorified poverty for her own ends and provided a justification for the preservation of institutions and beliefs that sustained widespread poverty.

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When and How Mother Teresa Died

After several years of deteriorating health, including heart, lung and kidney problems, Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87.

Mother Teresa’s Letters

In 2003, the publication of Mother Teresa’s private correspondence caused a wholesale re-evaluation of her life by revealing the crisis of faith she suffered for most of the last 50 years of her life.

In one despairing letter to a confidant, she wrote, "Where is my Faith—even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness—My God—how painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith—I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart—& make me suffer untold agony." While such revelations are shocking considering her public image, they have also made Mother Teresa a more relatable and human figure to all those who experience doubt in their beliefs.

Mother Teresa’s Miracles and Canonization

In 2002, the Vatican recognized a miracle involving an Indian woman named Monica Besra, who said she was cured of an abdominal tumor through Mother Teresa's intercession on the one-year anniversary of her death in 1998. She was beatified (declared in heaven) as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta" on October 19, 2003, by Pope John Paul II .

On December 17, 2015, Pope Francis issued a decree that recognized a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for her to be canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The second miracle involved the healing of Marcilio Andrino, a Brazilian man who was diagnosed with a viral brain infection and lapsed into a coma. His wife, family and friends prayed to Mother Teresa, and when the man was brought to the operating room for emergency surgery, he woke up without pain and was cured of his symptoms, according to a statement from the Missionaries of Charity Father.

Mother Teresa was canonized as a saint on September 4, 2016, a day before the 19th anniversary of her death. Pope Francis led the canonization mass, which was held in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Tens of thousands of Catholics and pilgrims from around the world attended the canonization to celebrate the woman who had been called “the saint of the gutters” during her lifetime because of her charitable work with the poor.

“After due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint, and we enroll her among the saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole church,” Pope Francis said in Latin.

The Pope spoke about Mother Teresa’s life of service in the homily. ”Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded," he said. "She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity. She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created."

He also told the faithful to follow her example and practice compassion. “Mercy was the salt which gave flavor to her work, it was the light which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering,” he said, adding. "May she be your model of holiness."

Since her death, Mother Teresa has remained in the public spotlight. For her unwavering commitment to aiding those most in need, Mother Teresa stands out as one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century. She combined profound empathy and a fervent commitment to her cause with incredible organizational and managerial skills that allowed her to develop a vast and effective international organization of missionaries to help impoverished citizens all across the globe.

Despite the enormous scale of her charitable activities and the millions of lives she touched, to her dying day, she held only the most humble conception of her own achievements. Summing up her life in characteristically self-effacing fashion, Mother Teresa said, "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."

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QUICK FACTS

• Name: Teresa
• Birth Year: 1910
• Birth date: August 26, 1910
• Birth City: Skopje
• Birth Country: Macedonia
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: Mother Teresa was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to helping the poor. Considered one of the 20th Century's greatest humanitarians, she was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.
• Christianity
• Astrological Sign: Virgo
• Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Nacionalities
• Macedonian (Macedonia)
• Albanian (Albania)
• Interesting Facts
• On religious pilgrimage at the age of 12, Mother Teresa experienced her calling to devote her life to Christ.
• Through her own letters, Mother Teresa expressed doubt and wrestled with her faith.
• Mother Teresa was canonized after the Vatican verified two people's claims of having experienced miracles through her.
• Death Year: 1997
• Death date: September 5, 1997
• Death City: Calcutta
• Death Country: India

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Mother Teresa Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/religious-figures/mother-teresa
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: February 24, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
• God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.
• Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family.
• Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.
• Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.
• If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.
• Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.
• Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.
• Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other and in the home begins the disruption of peace in the world.
• There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives-the pain the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.
• Like Jesus, we belong to the world not living for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

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Mother Teresa

By: History.com Editors

Published: February 26, 2024

Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, an organization that serves the poorest of the world’s population. An ethnic Albanian, born in what is now Macedonia, she lived and worked in India for nearly seven decades and became a citizen of that country. Her dedication to helping the poorest and sickest communities in Kolkata (then Calcutta) earned Mother Teresa widespread fame and numerous honors, including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

Childhood and Move to India

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in what is now Skopje, North Macedonia; at the time it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Her family was of Albanian descent; her father, a reasonably successful merchant, died when she was just eight years old. After his death, the family struggled financially, but her mother instilled in young Agnes the importance of leading a Christian life and serving the less fortunate.

At the age of 12, Agnes first felt a calling to become a nun and devote her life to God. She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish Catholic order with missions in India. She received training near Dublin, where she began learning English, before traveling to Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), India in late 1928. She took her first vows as a nun in May 1931, and received a new name: Teresa, after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. In 1937, when she took her final vows, she became known as Mother Teresa.

'Call Within a Call'

From 1931 to 1948, Mother Teresa taught geography, history and catechism at St. Mary’s High School in Kolkata. She learned Bengali and Hindi, and eventually became the school’s principal. She also regularly visited the city’s slums and saw how suffering increased there during the devastating famine in 1943, which killed hundreds of thousands of people in India’s Bengal province.

In September 1946, Mother Teresa experienced what she described as a “call within a call” while riding on a train within India. In response, she sought and received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and live and work in the slums among the city’s sickest and poorest residents. With this move, Mother Teresa began wearing what would become her trademark garb: a white sari with a blue border, later adopted as the habit for the other nuns who worked alongside her.

The Order of the Missionaries of Charity 

In 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to found her own order, the Missionaries of Charity. The order’s purpose was to help the poor while living among them, sharing their experience and treating them with kindness, compassion and empathy, but never pity. Mother Teresa and those who joined her order built various facilities as an open-air school, housing for orphan children, nursing homes for lepers and hospices for terminally ill patients.

Mother Teresa’s order expanded over the years to serve communities outside Kolkata, and in 1965, received permission from Pope Paul VI to expand internationally. It opened its first center in the United States in 1971 in New York City, and would eventually reach around 90 countries.

As her work earned her international renown, Mother Teresa was awarded honors including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). In 1975, she was featured on the cover of TIME magazine and called one of the world’s “living saints.”

Nobel Peace Prize and Criticism

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what the prize committee cited as her “work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress in the world, which also constitute a threat to peace.” By that time, the Missionaries of Charity included more than 1,800 nuns and 120,000 lay workers, working in more than 80 centers in India and more than 100 other centers internationally. The following year, the Indian government awarded Mother Teresa the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Despite her numerous honors and widespread fame and admiration, Mother Teresa became a target of criticism as well. She held hard-line conservative views against divorce, contraception and abortion , as well as highly traditional views about the role of women in society. Some critics cast doubt on the level of hygiene and care at some of her order’s facilities; others accused her of trying to convert the people she served to Christianity.

Declining Health, Death and Sainthood 

After suffering a heart attack in 1989, Mother Teresa attempted to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity but was returned to that office by a nearly unanimous vote; hers was the only dissent. In 1997, her worsening health forced her permanent retirement, and the order chose an Indian-born nun, Sister Nirmala, to replace her. Mother Teresa suffered cardiac arrest and died on September 5, 1997, in Kolkata, just days after her 87th birthday.

As the world mourned Mother Teresa’s death, Pope John Paul II issued a special dispensation to speed the process of her canonization, or becoming a saint. In 2003, he beatified Mother Teresa after an Indian woman attributed her recovery from stomach cancer to Mother Teresa’s intercession, which the Vatican recognized as a miracle.

Twelve years later, the Holy See recognized a second miracle, after a Brazilian man recovered from a life-threatening brain infection after his family prayed to Mother Teresa. In September 2016, Pope Francis I officially declared Mother Teresa a saint 19 years after her death—a markedly fast pace for modern times.

“She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created,” the Pope said in the canonization ceremony, held in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City .

Mother Teresa - Biographical. The Nobel Prize .

Eric Pace, “Mother Teresa, Hope of the Despairing, Dies at 87.” The New York Times , September 6, 1997.

Kathryn Spink. Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography , (Harper Collins, 1997).

Elisabetta Povoledo, “Mother Teresa Is Made a Saint by Pope Francis.” The New York Times , September 3, 2016.

Mallika Kapur and Sugam Pokharel, “‘Troubled individual:’ Mother Teresa no saint to her critics.” CNN , September 4, 2016.

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Biography Online

Biography Mother Teresa

“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”

– Mother Teresa. From: No Greater Love

Short Biography of Mother Teresa

On her arrival in India, she began by working as a teacher; however, the widespread poverty of Calcutta made a deep impression on her, and this led to her starting a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity”. The primary objective of this mission was to look after people, who nobody else was prepared to look after. Mother Teresa felt that serving others was a fundamental principle of the teachings of Jesus Christ. She often mentioned the saying of Jesus,

“Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.”

As Mother Teresa said herself:

“Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service .” – Mother Teresa

In 1952, she opened her first home for the dying, which allowed people to die with dignity. Mother Teresa often spent time with those who were dying. Some have criticised the lack of proper medical attention, and their refusal to give painkillers. Others say that it afforded many neglected people the opportunity to die knowing that someone cared.

Her work spread around the world. By 2013, there were 700 missions operating in over 130 countries. The scope of their work also expanded to include orphanages and hospices for those with terminal illnesses.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

—- Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa never sought to convert those of another faith. Those in her hospices were given the religious rites appropriate to their faith. However, she had a very firm Catholic faith and took a strict line on abortion, the death penalty and divorce – even if her position was unpopular. Her whole life was influenced by her faith and religion, even though at times she confessed she didn’t feel the presence of God.

The Missionaries of Charity now has branches throughout the world including branches in the developed world where they work with the homeless and people affected by AIDS. In 1965, the organisation became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

In the 1960s, the life of Mother Teresa was brought to a wider public attention by Malcolm Muggeridge who wrote a book and produced a documentary called “ Something Beautiful for God ”.

In later years, she was more active in western developed countries. She commented that though the West was materially prosperous, there was often a spiritual poverty.

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

-— Mother Teresa

When she was asked how to promote world peace, she replied,”Go home and love your family”.

Over the last two decades of her life, Mother Teresa suffered various health problems, but nothing could dissuade her from fulfilling her mission of serving the poor and needy. Until her very last illness she was active in travelling around the world to the different branches of The Missionaries of Charity. During her last few years, she met Princess Diana in the Bronx, New York. The two died within a week of each other.

Following Mother Teresa’s death, the Vatican began the process of beatification, which is the second step on the way to canonization and sainthood. Mother Teresa was formally beatified in October 2003 by Pope John Paul II . In September 2015, Pope Francis declared:

“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded,” “She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity. She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.”

Mother Teresa was a living saint who offered a great example and inspiration to the world.

Awards given to Mother Teresa

• The first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. (1971)
• Kennedy Prize (1971)
• The Nehru Prize –“for the promotion of international peace and understanding”(1972)
• Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975),
• The Nobel Peace Prize (1979)
• States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985)
• Congressional Gold Medal (1994)
• U Thant Peace Award 1994
• Honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996),

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Mother Teresa ”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 18th May 2006. (Updated September 2016)

Mother Teresa Biography

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No Greater Love – Mother Teresa

No Greater Love by Mother Teresa at Amazon

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External Links

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• Nobel Prize Biography

Biography of Mother Teresa, 'The Saint of the Gutters'

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Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910–September 5, 1997) founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic order of nuns dedicated to helping the poor. Begun in Calcutta, India, the Missionaries of Charity grew to help the poor, dying, orphans, lepers, and AIDS sufferers in more than 100 countries. Mother Teresa's selfless effort to help those in need has caused many to regard her as a model humanitarian. She was canonized a saint in 2016.

• Known for : Founding the Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic order of nuns dedicated to helping the poor
• Also known as : Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (birth name), "The Saint of the Gutters"
• Born : Aug. 26, 1910 in Üsküp, Kosovo Vilayet,  Ottoman Empire
• Parents : Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu
• Died : September 5, 1997 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India
• Honors : Canonized (pronounced a saint) in September 2016
• Notable quote : "We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something."

Early Years

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa, was the third and final child born to her Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, in the city of Skopje (a predominantly Muslim city in the Balkans). Nikola was a self-made, successful businessman and Dranafile stayed home to take care of the children.

When Mother Teresa was about 8 years old, her father died unexpectedly. The Bojaxhiu family was devastated. After a period of intense grief, Dranafile, suddenly a single mother of three children, sold textiles and hand-made embroidery to bring in some income.

Both before Nikola's death and especially after it, the Bojaxhiu family held tightly to their religious beliefs. The family prayed daily and went on pilgrimages annually.

When Mother Teresa was 12 years old, she began to feel called to serve God as a nun. Deciding to become a nun was a very difficult decision. Becoming a nun not only meant giving up the chance to marry and have children, but it also meant giving up all her worldly possessions and her family, perhaps forever.

For five years, Mother Teresa thought hard about whether or not to become a nun. During this time, she sang in the church choir, helped her mother organize church events, and went on walks with her mother to hand out food and supplies to the poor.

When Mother Teresa was 17, she decided to become a nun. Having read many articles about the work Catholic missionaries were doing in India, Mother Teresa was determined to go there. Mother Teresa applied to the Loreto order of nuns, based in Ireland but with missions in India.

In September 1928, 18-year-old Mother Teresa said goodbye to her family to travel to Ireland and then on to India. She never saw her mother or sister again.

Becoming a Nun

It took more than two years to become a Loreto nun. After spending six weeks in Ireland learning the history of the Loreto order and to study English, Mother Teresa then traveled to India, where she arrived on Jan. 6, 1929.

After two years as a novice, Mother Teresa took her first vows as a Loreto nun on May 24, 1931.

As a new Loreto nun, Mother Teresa (known then only as Sister Teresa, a name she chose after St. Teresa of Lisieux) settled into the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata (previously called Calcutta ) and began teaching history and geography at the convent schools.

Usually, Loreto nuns were not allowed to leave the convent; however, in 1935, 25-year-old Mother Teresa was given a special exemption to teach at a school outside of the convent, St. Teresa's. After two years at St. Teresa's, Mother Teresa took her final vows on May 24, 1937, and officially became "Mother Teresa."

Almost immediately after taking her final vows, Mother Teresa became the principal of St. Mary's, one of the convent schools, and was once again restricted to staying within the convent's walls.

'A Call Within a Call'

For nine years, Mother Teresa continued as the principal of St. Mary's. Then on Sept. 10, 1946, a day now annually celebrated as "Inspiration Day," Mother Teresa received what she described as a "call within a call."

She had been traveling on a train to Darjeeling when she received an "inspiration," a message that told her to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them.

For two years, Mother Teresa patiently petitioned her superiors for permission to leave the convent to follow her call. It was a long and frustrating process.

To her superiors, it seemed dangerous and futile to send a single woman out into the slums of Kolkata. However, in the end, Mother Teresa was granted permission to leave the convent for one year to help the poorest of the poor.

In preparation for leaving the convent, Mother Teresa purchased three cheap, white, cotton saris, each one lined with three blue stripes along its edge. (This later became the uniform for the nuns at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.)

After 20 years with the Loreto order, Mother Teresa left the convent on Aug. 16, 1948.

Rather than going directly to the slums, Mother Teresa first spent several weeks in Patna with the Medical Mission Sisters to obtain some basic medical knowledge. Having learned the basics, 38-year-old Mother Teresa felt ready to venture out into the slums of Calcutta, India in December 1948.

Founding the Missionaries of Charity

Mother Teresa started with what she knew. After walking around the slums for a while, she found some small children and began to teach them. She had no classroom, no desks, no chalkboard, and no paper, so she picked up a stick and began drawing letters in the dirt. Class had begun.

Soon after, Mother Teresa found a small hut that she rented and turned it into a classroom. Mother Teresa also visited the children's families and others in the area, offering a smile and limited medical help. As people began to hear about her work, they gave donations.

In March 1949, Mother Teresa was joined by her first helper, a former pupil from Loreto. Soon she had 10 former pupils helping her.

At the end of Mother Teresa's provisionary year, she petitioned to form her order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. Her request was granted by Pope Pius XII; the Missionaries of Charity was established on Oct. 7, 1950.

Helping the Sick, Dying, Orphaned, and Lepers

There were millions of people in need in India. Droughts, the caste system , India's independence, and partition all contributed to the masses of people that lived on the streets. India's government was trying, but they could not handle the overwhelming multitudes that needed help.

While the hospitals were overflowing with patients that had a chance to survive, Mother Teresa opened a home for the dying, called Nirmal Hriday ("Place of the Immaculate Heart"), on Aug. 22, 1952.

Each day, nuns would walk through the streets and bring people who were dying to Nirmal Hriday, located in a building donated by the city of Kolkata. The nuns would bathe and feed these people and then place them in a cot. They were given the opportunity to die with dignity, with the rituals of their faith.

In 1955, the Missionaries of Charity opened their first children's home (Shishu Bhavan), which cared for orphans. These children were housed and fed and given medical aid. When possible, the children were adopted out. Those not adopted were given an education, learned a trade skill, and found marriages.

In India's slums, huge numbers of people were infected with leprosy, a disease that can lead to major disfiguration. At the time, lepers (people infected with leprosy) were ostracized, often abandoned by their families. Because of the widespread fear of lepers, Mother Teresa struggled to find a way to help these neglected people.

Mother Teresa eventually created a Leprosy Fund and a Leprosy Day to help educate the public about the disease and established a number of mobile leper clinics (the first opened in September 1957) to provide lepers with medicine and bandages near their homes.

By the mid-1960s, Mother Teresa had established a leper colony called Shanti Nagar ("The Place of Peace") where lepers could live and work.

International Recognition

Just before the Missionaries of Charity celebrated its 10th anniversary, they were given permission to establish houses outside of Calcutta, but still within India. Almost immediately, houses were established in Delhi, Ranchi, and Jhansi; more soon followed.

For their 15th anniversary, the Missionaries of Charity was given permission to establish houses outside of India. The first house was established in Venezuela in 1965. Soon there were Missionaries of Charity houses all around the world.

As Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity expanded at an amazing rate, so did international recognition for her work. Although Mother Teresa was awarded numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she never took personal credit for her accomplishments. She said it was God's work and that she was just the tool used to facilitate it.

Controversy

With international recognition also came critique. Some people complained that the houses for the sick and dying were not sanitary, that those treating the sick were not properly trained in medicine, that Mother Teresa was more interested in helping the dying go to God than in potentially helping cure them. Others claimed that she helped people so that she could convert them to Christianity.

Mother Teresa also caused much controversy when she openly spoke against abortion and birth control. Others critiqued her because they believed that with her new celebrity status, she could have worked to end the poverty rather than soften its symptoms.

Later Years and Death

Despite the controversy, Mother Teresa continued to be an advocate for those in need. In the 1980s, Mother Teresa, already in her 70s, opened Gift of Love homes in New York, San Francisco, Denver, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for AIDS sufferers.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Mother Teresa's health deteriorated, but she still traveled the world, spreading her message.

When Mother Teresa, age 87, died of heart failure on Sept. 5, 1997 (just five days after Princess Diana 's death), the world mourned her passing. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see her body, while millions more watched her state funeral on television.

After the funeral, Mother Teresa's body was laid to rest at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. When Mother Teresa passed away, she left behind more than 4,000 Missionary of Charity Sisters at 610 centers in 123 countries.

Legacy: Becoming a Saint

After Mother Teresa's death, the Vatican began the lengthy process of canonization. After an Indian woman was cured of her tumor after praying to Mother Teresa, a miracle was declared, and the third of the four steps to sainthood was completed on Oct. 19, 2003, when the Pope approved Mother Teresa's beatification, awarding Mother Teresa the title "Blessed."​

The final stage required to become a saint involves a second miracle. On December 17, 2015, Pope Francis recognized the medically inexplicable waking (and healing) of an extremely ill Brazilian man from a coma on December 9, 2008, just minutes before he was to undergo emergency brain surgery as being caused by the intervention of Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was canonized (pronounced a saint) on September 4, 2016.

• Coppa, Frank J. “ Pius XII. ”  Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Oct. 2018.
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The New York Times

Europe | mother teresa: the life of a saint.

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Mother Teresa: The Life of a Saint

By THE NEW YORK TIMES SEPT. 1, 2016

On her path to sainthood, Mother Teresa was a nun, a nurse and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Mother Teresa is born in Skopje, now part of Macedonia.

Joins the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. There she learns English and is sent to the order’s girls’ school in Darjeeling, India, where she becomes a teacher, then principal.

After leaving the school, she learns nursing skills from other nuns, and begins her work with Kolkata’s poor.

Wins church recognition for a new order, the Missionaries of Charity, and becomes its superior general.

Wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work among the poor. Told of the honor, she says, “I am unworthy.” Her order has grown to 1,800 nuns and 120,000 lay workers, running nearly 200 centers and homes.

From the Archive: Mother Teresa of Calcutta Wins Peace Prize

Visits a Missionaries of Charity house in the Bronx. The order opened its first house in the United States in Harlem in 1971, but soon moved to the Bronx.

From the Archive: Mother Teresa Visits Poor in Bronx

Travels to Beirut, rescuing dozens of developmentally disabled children from the fighting there.

From the Archive: Hospital Is Visited by Mother Teresa

Suffering from heart problems, Mother Teresa tells Pope John Paul II she will resign as head of her order to make way for younger hands. But the order cannot agree on a successor, and she stays on.

In failing health, she steps aside and is replaced by Sister Nirmala.

Dies in Kolkata of heart failure. She was 87.

From the Archive: Mother Teresa, Hope of the Despairing, Dies at 87

Pope John Paul II beatifies Mother Theresa, the first step toward sainthood.

From the Archive: Before Throngs, Pope Leads Mother Teresa Closer to Sainthood

More on NYTimes.com

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Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , the future Mother Teresa, was born on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, to Albanian heritage. Her father, a well-respected local businessman, died when she was eight years old, leaving her mother, a devoutly religious woman, to open an embroidery and cloth business to support the family. After spending her adolescence deeply involved in parish activities, Agnes left home in September 1928, for the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnam (Dublin), Ireland, where she was admitted as a postulant on October 12 and received the name of Teresa, after her patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux.

Mother Teresa is now a Saint, learn more about her journey to sainthood

Agnes was sent by the Loreto order to India and arrived in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. Upon her arrival, she joined the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling. She made her final profession as a Loreto nun on 24 May 1937, and hereafter was called Mother Teresa. While living in Calcutta during the 1930s and '40s, she taught in St. Mary's Bengali Medium School.

On 10 September 1946, on a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she termed the "call within a call," which was to give rise to the Missionaries of Charity family of Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, and Co-Workers. The content of this inspiration is revealed in the aim and mission she would give to her new institute: "to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the cross for love and souls" by "labouring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor." On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially erected as a religious institute for the Archdiocese of Calcutta.

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From the late 1960s until 1980, the Missionaries of Charity expanded both in their reach across the globe and in their number of members. Mother Teresa opened houses in Australia, the Middle East, and North America, and the first novitiate outside Calcutta in London. In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. By that same year there were 158 Missionaries of Charity foundations.

The Missionaries of Charity reached Communist countries in 1979 with a house in Zagreb, Croatia, and in 1980 with a house in East Berlin, and continued to expand through the 1980s and 1990s with houses in almost all Communist nations, including 15 foundations in the former Soviet Union. Despite repeated efforts, however, Mother Teresa was never able to open a foundation in China.

Mother Teresa spoke at the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly in October 1985. On Christmas Eve of that year, Mother Teresa opened "Gift of Love" in New York, her first house for AIDS patients. In the coming years, this home would be followed by others, in the United States and elsewhere, devoted specifically for those with AIDS.

From the late 1980s through the 1990s, despite increasing health problems, Mother Teresa traveled across the world for the profession of novices, opening of new houses, and service to the poor and disaster-stricken. New communities were founded in South Africa, Albania, Cuba, and war-torn Iraq. By 1997, the Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members, and were established in almost 600 foundations in 123 countries of the world.

After a summer of traveling to Rome, New York, and Washington, in a weak state of health, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta in July 1997. At 9:30 PM, on 5 September, Mother Teresa died at the Motherhouse. Her body was transferred to St Thomas's Church, next to the Loreto convent where she had first arrived nearly 69 years earlier. Hundreds of thousands of people from all classes and all religions, from India and abroad, paid their respects. She received a state funeral on 13 September, her body being taken in procession - on a gun carriage that had also borne the bodies of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru - through the streets of Calcutta. Presidents, prime ministers, queens, and special envoys were present on behalf of countries from all over the world.

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Information about Mother Teresa -

Mother Teresa Date of Birth: August 27, 1910

Mother Teresa Feast Day: September 5 Mother Teresa Day in Albania:  October 19th

Mother Teresa Day of Canonization: September 4, 2016

Mother Teresa Day of Beatification: October 19, 2003

Venerated: December 20, 2002

About Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on August 27, 1910, as Agnesa Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the third child of the Bojaxhiu family. She was born in a family home in the centre of Skopje, at 13 Pop Kocina Street. She was baptised at the Catholic Church of the Heart of Jesus. In church schools, where she was an active member of the drama department, the literature section, and the church chorus, Gonxhe completed primary and high school successfully. Overall, she and her older brother and sister had a happy childhood. In crafts, fabric dyeing, and trade, the Bojaxhiu family had a long history of success.

Gonxhe entered an Abbey at age 12. She became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns in Ireland when Gonxhe was 18, taking the name Sister Teresa. Six months later, she was sent to Calcutta's Loreto Convent. It was there that she taught school and finally became principal. As her bond with Jesus grew deeper, she felt his sorrow for the very poor. She experienced the call of Jesus to go and offer the love of God and to be of service to Calcutta's most desperately poor. This led her to leave the school compound's comparative security, sheltered from the most abject poverty of the city, to live with the poorest of the poor on the streets.

About Mother Teresa Charities and Missionaries

Teresa sought and obtained Vatican permission to start a diocesan congregation, which would become the Missionaries of Charity, after working on the streets of Calcutta for two years. "The poor, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers," Teresa explained, "all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, and uncared for in society, people who have become a burden to society and are shunned by others." In Calcutta, it started as a small order of 12 members.

More than 4,000 nuns ran orphanages, AIDS hospices, and charity centres on all six continents by 2006, caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, elderly, alcoholics, the sick, homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.

In 1952, the city of Calcutta made space available for the first home for the dying. Mother Teresa converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the sick, with the aid of Indian officials. She opened another hospice, Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart), as well as a home for lepers named Shanti Nagar (City of Peace) and an orphanage shortly after.

Recruits and voluntary donations began to flood in for the order. The order had opened hospices, orphanages, and leper houses all over India by the 1960s. Mother Teresa was one of the first people to build AIDS homes.

Teresa's order quickly grew. Around the world, new facilities are being built. Venezuela was the order's first outpost outside of India. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and later in several Asian, African, and European countries, including Albania.

Mother Teresa was well-known around the world by the early 1970s. Malcolm Muggeridge's documentary film Something Beautiful for God, released in 1969, and his book of the same name, published in 1971, made her work known all over the world.

The crew felt the documentary footage they captured in bad lighting conditions was unusable. After returning from India, however, the film was discovered to be extremely well lit. Mother Teresa, Muggeridge said, had performed a miracle of "divine light." Others in the crew claimed it was more likely due to a new style of movie. Muggeridge later became a devout Catholic.

In 1982, Mother Teresa convinced Israelis and Palestinians engaged in a skirmish to avoid shooting long enough to evacuate 37 mentally ill patients from a besieged Beirut hospital.

When the Eastern European walls came down, she widened her efforts to include communist countries that had previously rejected her, launching hundreds of initiatives. Mother Teresa also visited Ethiopia to help the hungry, Chernobyl radiation victims, and earthquake victims in Armenia. Mother Teresa visited her homeland for the first time in 1991, opening a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.

She was running 517 missions in over 100 countries by 1996. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity expanded from 12 nuns to thousands helping the "poorest of the poor" in 450 locations around the world over the years. In the United States, the first Missionaries of Charity home was founded in the South Bronx, New York.

Recognition and Acceptance

Mother teresa india.

Teresa was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969 by the Indian government, more than a third of a century ago. Other Indian awards followed, including the Bharat Ratna (India's highest civilian honour) in 1980. Navin Chawla's official biography of Teresa was published in 1992. On August 28, 2010, the Indian government released a special 5 coin (the sum of money Teresa had when she arrived in India) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Does Mother Teresa Matter Elsewhere? 

Teresa was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in 1962 for her contributions to South and East Asia. She had become an international star by the early 1970s. Teresa's celebrity can be traced in part to Malcolm Muggeridge's documentary Something Beautiful for God from 1969 and his book of the same name from 1971. In 1982, she was made an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia "for service to the nation of Australia and humanity at large" by governments and civilian organisations.

Several decorations were bestowed by the United Kingdom and the United States, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983 and honorary citizenship in the United States on November 16, 1996. Teresa was given the Golden Honor of the Country by her Albanian homeland in 1994, but her acceptance of it, as well as the Haitian Legion of Honour, was controversial. Teresa was chastised for ostensibly helping the Duvaliers and crooked businessmen like Charles Keating and Robert Maxwell; she wrote to Keating's trial judge asking for clemency.

About Mother Teresa Deteriorating Health and Death

Teresa died of a heart attack in 1983 while meeting Pope John Paul II in Rome. She got a pacemaker after the second attack in 1989. She experienced heart problems in 1991, following a bout with pneumonia while in Mexico.

She offered to step down as the head of the order. The vote was performed by secret ballot. Except for her, all of the nuns voted for Mother Teresa to stay. Mother Teresa decided to remain on as the Missionaries of Charity's chief.

Mother Teresa fractured her collar bone when she fell in April 1996. She was diagnosed with malaria and left heart ventricle failure in August. She underwent heart surgery, but her health was deteriorating.

Under the assumption that Mother Teresa was being attacked by a demon, Archbishop of Calcutta Henry Sebastian D'Souza ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on her. She gave her consent to the exorcism.

Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, a 300-member related brotherhood, and over 100,000 lay volunteers running 610 missions in 123 countries at the time of her death. Hospices and homes for HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis patients, soup kitchens, children's and family therapy services, orphanages, and schools were among them.

The Government of India honoured Mother Teresa with a full state funeral, an honour usually reserved for presidents and prime ministers, in appreciation of her service to India's poor of all faiths. Within both secular and religious cultures, her death was widely viewed as a great tragedy.

Awards and Commemorations

Mother Teresa was awarded the Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in 1962. Paul VI conferred the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize on her in 1971. Other honours she received included the Kennedy Prize (1971), the Balzan Prize (1978) for humanity, unity, and brotherhood among peoples, the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States on November 16, 1996 (one of only two people to receive this honour during their lifetimes), and honorary citizenship of the United States on November 16, 1997 (one of only two people to receive this honour during their lifetimes).

In 1973, Teresa won the Templeton Prize. In 1981, Jean-Claude Duvalier conferred the Legion d'Honneur upon her. She was the first and only living person to be featured on an Indian postage stamp.

About Mother Teresa Memorial Museum

In Skopje's Feudal Tower, where she used to play as a child, a memorial room (museum) was created. The museum houses a large number of pieces from Mother Theresa's life in Skopje as well as relics from her later years. A model of her family home, built by the artist Vojo Georgievski, can be found in the Memorial Room.

An area with a statue of Mother Teresa, a memorial park, and a fountain is located next to the Memorial Room.

About Mother Teresa Memorial Plaque

The house of Mother Theresa used to be situated on the outskirts of Skopje's city mall. “On this spot was the house where Gondza Bojadzic — Mother Teresa — was born on August 26, 1910,” according to the memorial plaque, which was dedicated in March of 1998.

FAQs on Mother Teresa Biography

Q1. Where is Mother Teresa from? Is Mother Teresa Indian?

Ans: Mother Teresa, also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in the Roman Catholic Church, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary who was born in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia) in 1910 when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire's Kosovo Vilayet. In her words, She was an Albanian by blood, an Indian by citizenship and by faith a catholic nun.

Q2. What is Mother Teresa Remembered for?

Ans: Mother Teresa founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic women's religious congregation dedicated to assisting the needy. She was canonised as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016 and is recognised as one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century.

Q3. What is Mother Teresa Feast?

Ans: Mother Teresa was canonised on September 4th, 2016 and the anniversary of her death which is September 5th, is the feast of Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa

• Occupation: Catholic Nun
• Born: August 26, 1910 in Uskub, Ottoman Empire
• Died: September 5, 1997 in Calcutta, India
• Best known for: Fighting for the rights of the sick and helpless
• Mother Teresa has been beatified by the Catholic Church. This is a step on the way to becoming a Saint. She is now called Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
• She never saw her mother or sister again after leaving home to become a missionary.
• Albania's international airport is named after her, the Aeroporti Nene Tereza.
• She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Rather than have the traditional Nobel honor banquet, she asked that the money for the banquet be donated to the poor of India.
• She once traveled through a war zone to rescue 37 children from the front lines.
• She received numerous awards for all her charity work including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan .
• It takes around 9 years of service to become a full member of the Missionaries of Charity.
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DK Biography: Mother Teresa: A Photographic Story of a Life Paperback – August 4, 2008

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DK Biography: Mother Teresa tells the story of Catholic nun Agnes Bojaxhiu, from her early work with the poor in Calcutta, to the expansion of her Missionaries of Charity, to her recognition as a saint after her death.

Supports the Common Core State Standards.

• Reading age 10 - 17 years
• Print length 128 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 5 - 12
• Lexile measure NC1260L
• Dimensions 5.06 x 0.36 x 7.81 inches
• Publisher DK Children
• Publication date August 4, 2008
• ISBN-10 9780756638801
• ISBN-13 978-0756638801
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0756638801
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ DK Children; Illustrated edition (August 4, 2008)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780756638801
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0756638801
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 10 - 17 years
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ NC1260L
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 5 - 12
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 0.36 x 7.81 inches
• #340 in Children's Religious Biographies (Books)
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